And back again! Twice in the same fortnight! What ARE the odds of that?

 

Given that I will be dealing with lots of free time in the future, they’re quite high odds I’ll have you know.

 

Higher than Alyssa Milano, that is!

 

Hey screw you, that was funny.

 

So in the last week we have some bad news. I will go through it in no particular order.

 

Why? Because I can.

 

Sora’s car Bakura is a write-off. Because the car is worth around $5000 and it’s already had about $4000 of repairs over the years, the insurance company is refusing to pay for it. If the woman who caused the accident refuses to pay Sora is without a car. And I can’t flat-out loan her mine; because I need that too and it’s not insured.

 

For Sai’s twenty-first birthday we went out for a family dinner – a rather high-class attempt at MSG-laden cuisine called the Dragon Court; nestled within the city casino with Leaf, and Sai’s father to boot.

 

You’d think this was wonderful but no.

 

The birthday dinner started out well but turned into what was essentially a demolition derby; complete with baying angry crowd and drivers that loved the idea of ramming their defenceless opponents headfirst into a wall. Only replace “baying crowd” with “startled restaurant staff” and “drivers” with “Leaf” and you have the idea. I am extremely pissed at her – it was supposed to be Sai’s 21st birthday party, it’s supposed to be all about Sai…. And Leaf turned it into a Ricki Lake pity-party about herself. The “present” she brought for Sai turned out to be a supermarket shopping bag of Leaf memorabilia. I mean honestly, how conceited can you get? When you turn twenty-one the best present you can get is liquor, a jumbo pack of glow sticks and an airfare to Norway; it’s all about letting go of that last remaining slip of your childhood and embracing your new adulthood with both arms - and then holding that bastard down until it slams five shots of Jaeger one after the other. It is supposed to be your last blast, your final chance to get wrecked and enjoy being a teenager because now it’s all over and you’re just as responsible and boring as the rest of the world.

 

And Leaf brought a whole lot of stuff related to herself; waffling on about it like Sai thinks she’s some kind of celebrity. I honestly couldn’t tell if she was pigheaded or stupid for thinking the best birthday present in the world were photos of her own house.

 

Okay to be fair, the photos were intended for Sai’s father, who had flown all the way up from Sydney just for the dinner. Leaf hasn’t seen him in years and brought the photos as a taunt – and she can carry on all she likes that she does “genuinely want to show him what I’ve done with my life”, but when for the last two hours it’s been snide remarks and potshots the whole way through an otherwise lovely dinner I severely doubt intentions were wide-eyed and doey. What’s more, some of the photos in the Leaf-O-Rama pack were photos of the casket Sai’s grandmother was buried in; the day she was buried too. That would be insensitive enough considering; but only three weeks prior one of Sai’s friends committed suicide; and Leaf knew that very well because the two of us took turns comforting Sai. So either she didn’t remember, didn’t consider or didn’t care. And all three of those options are disgusting.

 

Augh. Relationships with Leaf are understandably strained. I’ve already told Sai I’ve had enough; I’m not going to play nice any longer when it’s clear that the only person that woman ever thinks about is herself… even things she does for Sai she only does for the attention so she can have an excuse to talk about herself. I’ve told Sai that Leaf is not welcome at our home any more; and that the next time she talks to me if she drops so much as ONE sideways remark I am going to lose my temper and chew her out for her selfish, deplorable actions; as loudly and publicly as possible.

 

And this was the ONLY time in which Sai not only didn’t make any attempt to convince me not to; she agreed with me.

 

Anyway, onto happier topics.

 

Our Melbourne Midfur trip is getting closer; only about three weeks to go. Airfares are paid for and crash pads are sorted – only they were all out of crash pads so we had to settle for beds in a comfy hotel instead, the cheeky buggers. All that’s left are the Con tickets – I have to give Sora $165 as my ticket is hers, transferred to me – and then another $100 to Foxen (dude organising the tickets) as I’m upgrading mine to Gold Class, which will rock. Then there’s $50 for Carni (who drew up our con badges). That’s all the costs left; everything else is covered.

 

Including spending money, if I get paid on the 6th and the 20th like I should be.

 

Because if I play my budget violin properly and get a good following, I can play in a big concerto.

 

Like, a thousand dollars each to spend in Melbourne concerto.

 

Okay that’s about as likely as a Port-A-Loo on top of Uluru but like its metaphor, would be just as good an idea.

 

Aside from that it’s been kinda quiet. Sai and I have had the flu for the last few days (and Leaf has been sending enough voicemails and text to crash Skynet), so we’ve been resting – Sai playing Fable II (and she’s playing as an evil cantankerous cow! Gods I love this woman) and I’ve been alternating between working on Project Dirge and playing my Platinum version like the nerd I am. Not really a lot to do except sit on the back veranda and watch the wildlife wilt – it’s now November and still no Wet Season in sight. I feel ripped off…